Due to the ever growing performance and cost demands on the manufacture and maintenance of avionics systems, it is desirable to produce an improved avionics system architecture. Modern avionics networks act to provide data transfer capabilities between various portions of an aircraft. Avionics systems typically include numerous sub-systems that provide data transfer to and from the processing components of an aircraft. For instance, avionics modules may collect avionics data (e.g., sensors detecting speed, direction, external temperature, control surface positions, and the like), which is then routed to one or more aircraft components (e.g., displays, monitoring circuits, processors, and the like) via an avionics communication network.
Ethernet based networks have been implemented in avionics communication networks in order to provide communication between the various aircraft components. Typically, an Ethernet network may be used route data in a digital form via packets or frames. In a typical avionics network environment, the given Ethernet network includes different components that subscribe to the avionics network and connect to each other through various switches. Each network subscriber can transmit packets to one or more other subscribers. When a switch receives a packet, the switch determines the destination equipment and directs or switches the packets to such equipment.
Ethernet networks utilized in avionic system may include Avionics Full Duplex (AFDX) switch Ethernet networks. In a switched full-duplex Ethernet network, the term “switched” refers to the packets being switched in switches on appropriate outputs. These networks require multiple switches and redundant paths to route data, point-to-point or point-to-multipoint across the various switches. Typically, integrated modular avionics (IMA) architectures are implemented in aircraft development to reduce the size, weight, and price footprint of the avionics system of the aircraft.
Currently implemented IMA architectures tend to be complex and are difficult to certify given the numerous aircraft functions hosted on them. In addition, the current IMA architectures do not scale adequately for large numbers of applications due to the degree of change necessary to integrate multiple aircraft functions on a common processing environment. As such, it is desirable to produce an avionics network that cures the defects of previous networks and provides reduced hardware cost and improved functionality.